Man burns wife's cats in fire pit, police say

After a tragic night, Robin Ford is now mourning the loss of her family. She said she watched helplessly as her husband burned 12 of her cats in a fire pit.

"I couldn't do nothing," she told Newswatch. "I tried to get the crate out of the fire with a hoe, but it was just too late. I just kneeled down and just watched it go up and listening to them cats crying and screaming and wanting out, and there wasn't nothing I could do."

Michael Wayne Ford, 56, was arrested Monday for seven counts of felony animal cruelty after he threw a crate of cats into the fire, according to a criminal complaint filed in Fayette County. Robin Ford believes 12 were killed, but police only found remains of seven. Robin told Newswatch some were only days old.

"All my cats -- I'm used to having them around my feet," she said. "When you open up the front door, they're all waiting to either jump in or waiting to attack my feet or my legs, and now it's sad because they're not there."

Robin Ford believes her husband allegedly burned the cats after a fight about money. She believes her intoxicated husband was angry about the price of cat food and the mess the animals made inside.

"They didn't deserve what they got," she told WOAY. "They didn't deserve to burn. They didn't deserve to be put in that box and put on fire and burned alive. That was my family."

The cats are in their final resting place, buried near the fire pit by a responding state police officer. The dogs and cats who escaped death must stay with family members until Michael Ford's fate is determined.

"They were a part of my family, and they always will be a part of my family, and they'll never be forgotten.